Inferno of Tears
by xLOTUSx
Summary: Artemis isn't like everyone else, and she knows it. Escape from her small town is hard, but after accomplishing it, she wonders if it was the right thing... until she meets Kaori.


******************** Inferno of Tears By Lotus ********************  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHAPTER ONE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Your eyes are purrdy, miss," a young boy murmured to Artemis. His eyes were glued to the floor, and his cheeks were rubicund. He looked to be about eight or so years younger than Artemis, who had turned fourteen in the last week. "All green and shiny like that..." he trailed off, and outstretched his hand, in which he held a small daisy.  
  
"Why, thank you!" she gushed, beaming at him. Embarrassed, the little boy slowly backed up towards the door. As he reached it, he turned and sprinted out of the small store. Turning her back to the counter, Artemis's smile changed. It went from bright and warm to snarling and wicked in a split second. She held out the flower. Slowly, she opened her hand, balancing the stem in the center of her palm. Gently it rose a centimeter from her skin and hovered there. The menacing grin on her face widened. The petals darkened and were crusted in a black dust. The stem crippled, doubling over with the suddenly immense weight it held. Starting at the very tip of the highest petal, the entire bloom burst into flame.  
  
"Okay, Timmy, here are those pokeballs you ordered—" Elleni, another store worker, came out of the backroom holding a rather large case of pokeballs. "Where'd he go?" she started to say. Then she saw the charred powder that Artemis was delicately sprinkling onto the linoleum floor. "Artemis, you didn't!" Elleni's honey tinted eyes widened in shock. "You know that if anyone here discovers who you are... what you are," she corrected, "that they'll—"  
  
"What? I didn't! Well, not in front of the kid, anyway." Artemis had a bored look pasted on her face. She toyed with a mauve strand of hair that had fallen from its place.  
  
"Oh..." the stunned look on Elleni's face melted away. "Don't be too hard on the kid. He's had a crush on you since you came here, you know." Now she smirked. Artemis rolled her eyes.  
  
"Oh, great... I can attract little ten your olds with my eyes. In the meantime, may I remind you, not one guy our age would give me the time of day?" she smirked back at her accomplice.  
  
"Well... it's just that you're so..." she stared out into the shop, hoping that the right words would be on a shelf.  
  
"What? Emaciated? Diminutive? Boisterous? Garrulous? Purple?" while all these facts about her were true, Artemis knew that Elleni wouldn't really say those things about her. She may have a big mouth at times, but she was no where near as vulgar and rude as Artemis.  
  
"No! It's not that at all. They just think you're... well, creepy." When she raised one of her mauve eyebrows, Elleni continued. "You know, the whole suddenly appearing with no explanation thing. I honestly don't think that they believe that you're my cousin, either."  
  
Artemis tipped her head. "No duh." Elleni was tall and slender, and had a body that looked like it belonged on the cover of Vogue. She wore her blonde, pink-tipped hair in pigtails and had a bubbly personality that matched her splendid looks. Artemis, in the meantime, looked quite different. She was small and withered, with a body that looked like it belonged somewhere in Anorexia Weekly. Her hair was dyed a rich violet wine color, and she wore contacts to make her eyes look green. Anyone with eyes could see that they weren't connected by blood.  
  
The door swung open. Artemis and Elleni both turned around, Artemis bearing clenched teeth. Entering was a twelve year old girl who Artemis recognized as Samantha Dittmer. Her parents, two stiffs wearing polo shirts, were briskly walking behind her.  
  
"Hello. I'm George Dittmer. This is my wife Julie and my daughter Sammy." Artemis mentally rolled her eyes. 'George' had no need to introduce neither himself nor his family. They were next door neighbors. "Now, Sammy is going to become a trainer soon," he patted his wife's shoulder, "and she'll need some supplies. Now, Julie wasn't a trainer and neither was I, so we don't really know what she needs. Can one of you help us?"  
  
"Sure!" Elleni brightly answered. "I'm not a trainer, but Artemis is. I'll show you what little Sammy will be needing. In the meantime, Art here can show Sam her Pokemon and maybe give her some advice." Artemis turned and threw a sarcastic smile at her 'cousin.'  
  
"Well, wouldn't that be great, Samantha?" Julie beamed down at her daughter while being ushered away by Elleni.  
  
Rolling her eyes Artemis unfastened all six of her pokeballs from the corset she wore over her clothes. It had been shipped into the store with the new supplies last week, and Mr. Wilson (the owner of the store) had given it to her as a birthday gift. One by one she let out all of her Pokemon. The first she let out was Calliope, her Absol, who she had had before she came to Raja Isle. The second was an Electrike named Montague, the third a Linoone named Ganesa, the fourth a Grumpig named Sanyu, and the fifth was a Latias named Kaida. Finally she let out her Parvania, her Delcatty. When Parvania was released, Samantha gaped in awe.  
  
Slowly the little girl approached the Delcatty, who was nearly as tall as herself. Her hand was inches away from her the Pokemon's head, and just as she was about to pet her, Parvania licked her. Screaming, Samantha whipped her hand away and backed away.  
  
"What?! What did that... Horrid!... creature do to my baby??" screeched Julie, running to Samantha. The girl's cheeks were already streaked with tears.  
  
'She'll never make it as a trainer.' Artemis thought to herself. Parvania looked up at her master, a hurt look on her face. 'You didn't do anything. Don't worry about it.' she thought to the Pokemon. By now the threesome had backed out of the store, discussing how completely wretched Parvania was.  
  
Recalling all her Pokemon save for Parvania, Artemis clipped the balls back onto the corset. "Ugh... Why'd it have to go and lick her?" moaned Elleni. "They were about to spend a FORTUNE on healing supplies." She then walked over and smacked the Delcatty upside the head. Parvania hissed at her.  
  
"Hey!" Artemis yelled. Elleni rolled her eyes.  
  
"It's a Pokemon, not a person. Get real. Do you honestly think it cares? I hardly doubt it even noticed." While speaking Elleni was examining her nails, so she did not see that Artemis was practically pinning Parvania to the ground to prevent her from whip-lashing her.  
  
"The last place had been different." Artemis whispered to herself, low enough so that Elleni couldn't even hear her. "Or had it?" she murmured again. She had no memory past three weeks ago, when she had appeared stranded in the woods behind the old conjurer Cornelia's house. After discovering her, Cornelia had searched the woods entirely in hopes of finding something or someone that could explain her sudden appearance. Finally, in a clearing near the beach, she uncovered a plane. It was burning, and it looked like it had had a rather hard impact with the ground. Inside, two rotting corpses lay upon one another. Their flesh was smoking, and hair on one of the heads was burning inevitably.  
  
Cornelia recognized that the girl, who called herself Artemis, was suffering from amnesia. Despite all of her potions, she could not bring back any of her memory prior to the crash. Then things started happening...  
  
It all started out simply enough. The burning of a piece of toast, a candle flame gone too high... Then it all went wrong. Artemis accidentally started a forest fire. It burned for hours on end, and no water could extinguish her fiery rage. All credit to the death of the fire was given to Cornelia, who put a calming sleeping potion on the teen, causing her to pass out. The townspeople, of course, had no idea that Artemis had actually started the fire. All they knew was that she was the only one who had not been afraid of the inferno, even when the flames licked at the hem of her own clothes. They then classified her as a freak.  
  
"Artemis? You there? Yoo-hoo?" Elleni was waving a hand in front of her face. "Did you hear me?" Artemis shook her head. "I said get that filthy mongrel out of my store." Parvania growled.  
  
"It would be so easy to burn that smirk right off her face..." she thought to herself. Without her consent, her eyes flashed red, and her contacts fell out. Surprised, Artemis inverted her conflagrating gaze to a stack of Escape Ropes, which immediately caught fire and burst into smoke.  
  
Grabbing Parvania, Artemis leaped out the door. "Artemis!!" screamed Elleni after her, but to no avail. Artemis ran through the woods until she reached the other side of the thin island. Panting, she kneeled in the damp sand and lowered Parvania. The brim of the water lapped at her knees.  
  
"Artemis... look." Parvania whispered in shock. Turning to the water, Artemis saw her reflection. Rippling through the roots, her hair was turning a fiery scarlet and was growing longer by the second. Her eyes were becoming small beady rubies.  
  
"Oh no..." she murmured. Calling Parvania back into her ball, Artemis sprinted back through the woods to Cornelia's cabin. It was happening again. 


End file.
